of history. also, the gravitas of the president. atlanta is the cradle of the civil rights movement and to bring the weight of the symbolic weight and significance of recent history to bear on this issue, i think it was very important for us to understand that our democracy, as a multiracial democracy, we are very young. we haven t been a multiracial democracy, i would argue, lawrence, since 1965. and that was barely then because you remember we it took us a while to implement the voting rights act in 1965. by the time reagan was elected in is the 80, he was selected to undo the gains of the civil rights movement. to go to atlanta is to give us a sense of the importance, the significance of the moment. and this is why i think the president insisted that you have to choose a side. either you are going to be for democracy or you re not. you are going to be for voter suppression or you re not. you are going to be for voter subversion or you re not. i think making that choice lets us kno
this country, this democracy, cannot continue to flourish if we do not continue to show other countries the way we should go as a nation, and that is the threat that we have before us today. so i would say to them, look at how far we ve come. you know, west virginia is west virginia because to broke off from virginia over the issue of slavery. i will remind senator manchin that west virginia has a tremendous history. it s a good history on this subject. and i think that he ought to reflect that history as he goes out into the future. now, arizona is a bit different. it s a little newer state than west virginia. but i would say to senator sinema, just remember the 18th amendment was required for women to get the right to vote.
leading off our discussion is democratic congressman james clyburn of south carolina, the third rankk democratic in the house of representatives. congressman, thank you very much for joining us on this important night. joe biden today, as president, finally said what you have been wanting him to say procedurally, which is he is willing very much to support a change in the senate rules, get rid of the filibuster, whatever it takes to pass voting rights. yes, he did. thank you very much for having me. i listened to that speech today very intently, and i think that the president said exactly what he needed to say and the tone was exactly what it needed to be. i think we are now poised to tackle this issue in a way that gives us a possibility of bringing along those two senators that have been a bit
republican issue, but this isn t a partisan issue. when you suppress the vote, you are suppressing it for everyone. it has a greater impact on communities of color, new voters and younger voters, but this is not a partisan issue. when you look at the john lewis voting rights act, which is the voting rights act that has been reauthorized president after president after president, even republican presidents, the last time that it was reauthorized was under president george w. bush, a republican president, and it passed the senate 98-0. so this is not a partisan fight. donald trump and his team want you to think that it is, but we have to stand up for our country. we have to stand up for democracy and we need people to decide which side they are going to be on. this is our civil rights movement and we have to do to get this bill across the finish line. congresswoman nikema williams, thank you for joining us on this important day. really appreciate it.
i think the important part of what the president and vice president did today is, yes, they re fiery, passionate, but they called folks to the carpet and they applied pressure and that is what is needed going into this weekend where it is expected that a vote is going to happen. i ve texted with senators, i ve asked, what is going on? are we going to get a vote? they have told me a vote is coming and people, united states senators, need to go on the record. the question really is, in my opinion, nicole, what happens after monday? what happens after the question has been called, people are on the record, and let s just say the vote doesn t pass. what are activists and advocates and organizations looking for from the president and vice president? what kind of pressure will be applied there? not just on democrats but on republicans, because this isn t an issue. our democracy isn t a partisan issue. it s an american issue. it s just crazy to me that this has become a partisan game. well,